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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Photo # NH 83530: USS Isabel at Hankow, China, 14 May 1937

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Isabel (SP-521, later PY-10), 1917-1946

Isabel, a 930-ton (displacement) fast steam yacht, was under construction at Bath, Maine, in 1917, when she was acquired by the Navy for World War I service. Converted a warship at the Boston Navy Yard, she was equipped with guns and torpedo tubes which, with her 26-28 knot speed, made her nearly the equal of some of the Navy's destroyers. USS Isabel (SP-521) was commissioned in late December 1917 and soon steamed across the Atlantic to the European war zone. Employed for the rest of the conflict as a convoy escort off western France, she took part in several engagements with German submarines. Isabel returned to the United States early in 1919 and was assigned to recruiting duty, cruising up the Mississippi River during the spring and summer and, later in the year, acting as tender to the flying boat NC-4 as it toured the Atlantic Coast.

When this assignment ended early in 1920, Isabel was decommissioned, stripped of her torpedo tubes and some of her guns, and given a large deckhouse on her after deck. Now reclassified as a patrol vessel converted yacht, with the hull number PY-10, she was placed back in commission in July 1921 and sent to Asia by way of the Panama Canal and the Pacific Ocean. She arrived at Hong Kong in November to begin two decades of Far Eastern service. As flagship of the Yangtze River Patrol, she operated on that great river and along the China Coast during most of the 1920s. Late in the decade Isabel became part-time flagship for the U.S. Asiatic Fleet, losing the big deckhouse at about that time. She spent the 1930s and the first two years of the 1940s cruising in Philippine waters and off China, frequently flying the four-star flag of the fleet's Commander in Chief.

As tensions with Japan became increasingly ominous durng the last part of 1941, Isabel was sent on a scouting mission off Indochina. She was near Manila when the Pacific War began on 8 December (local time) and was present when Japanese bombers attacked the Cavite Navy Yard on the 10th. During the first two months of 1942 she was employed as a convoy escort in the Dutch East Indies and, in March, joined other surviving Allied warships as they retreated to Australia. For the rest of World War II Isabel operated out of Fremantle as an escort and training ship supporting the U.S. submarines that were based there. In late August 1945, soon after the fighting ended, she began the long voyage back to the U.S., arriving at San Francisco, California, in late October. USS Isabel was decommissioned in February 1946 and sold for scrapping in March of that year.

This page features views concerning USS Isabel (SP-521, later PY-10), selected from the comprehensive pictorial coverage of her contained in the following pages:

  • USS Isabel (SP-521) -- Views taken in 1917-1919;
  • USS Isabel (PY-10) -- Views of the Ship taken during the 1920s;
  • USS Isabel (PY-10) -- Views of the Ship taken after 1930;
  • USS Isabel (PY-10) -- Distant Views taken in 1920-1946;
  • USS Isabel (PY-10) -- On Board Views taken during the 1920s;
  • USS Isabel (PY-10) -- Shipboard Activities, during the 1930s;
  • USS Isabel (PY-10) -- Other On Board Views taken during the 1930s; and
  • USS Isabel (PY-10) -- Miscellaneous Views.


    If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

    Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

    Photo #: NH 544

    USS Isabel
    (SP-521, later PY-10)

    Off the Boston Navy Yard, Charlestown, Massachusetts, on 31 December 1917, following conversion to a warship.
    Note her Mackay type camouflage scheme, and torpedo tubes installed amidships.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 64KB; 740 x 480 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 53275

    USS Isabel
    (SP-521, later PY-10)

    Making smoke while underway, circa 1919.
    Note the torpedo tubes installed amidships on this "destroyer" converted from a fast yacht.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 60KB; 740 x 585 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 73279

    USS Isabel
    (PY-10)

    In Asiatic waters, about 1928.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 66KB; 740 x 610 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 83192-KN (color)

    USS Isabel (PY-10)

    Delicately water color tinted photograph of the ship in Chinese waters, circa the 1920s.

    Collection of Captain Glenn Howell, USN.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 64KB; 740 x 550 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 83530

    USS Isabel
    (PY-10)

    At Hankow, China, on 14 May 1937.
    She is "dressed overall" in honor of the coronation of King George VI of England and flies the four-star flag of Commander in Chief, U.S. Asiatic Fleet.

    Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation. Collection of Admiral Harry E. Yarnell, USN.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 75KB; 740 x 530 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 84776

    USS Isabel
    (PY-10)

    In the southwest Pacific area, circa early 1942.

    Photograph from the papers of Admiral Thomas C. Hart, USN.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 55KB; 740 x 550 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 80138

    USS Isabel
    (PY-10)

    Ship's Number Two Gun (a 3"/50 type) in action during a gunnery exercise, circa 1933-1934.
    The Gun Captain is identified as Tim Shea.
    Note man hand ramming cartridge into the gun's breech, and Chief Petty Officer leaning on line reel spotting the shots with binoculars as a Sailor takes notes.

    Courtesy of Captain G. Knox Bishop, U.S. Air Force, 1974.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 83KB; 740 x 535 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 81649

    General Iwane Matsui, Imperial Japanese Army
    ,
    Commander of Japanese Expeditionary Forces in the Yangtze Valley

    Salutes the Honor Guard as he comes aboard USS Isabel (PY-10) at Shanghai, China, circa January 1938.
    Also saluting, in center, is Admiral Harry E. Yarnell, USN, Commander in Chief, U.S. Asiatic Fleet.
    Note bugler at the right end of the Honor Guard.

    Courtesy of Mr. and Mrs. Philip Yarnell, 1975.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 72KB; 740 x 605 pixels

     

    This page features views concerning USS Isabel (SP-521, later PY-10), selected from the comprehensive pictorial coverage of her contained in the following pages:

  • USS Isabel (SP-521) -- Views taken in 1917-1919;
  • USS Isabel (PY-10) -- Views of the Ship taken during the 1920s;
  • USS Isabel (PY-10) -- Views of the Ship taken after 1930;
  • USS Isabel (PY-10) -- Distant Views taken in 1920-1946;
  • USS Isabel (PY-10) -- On Board Views taken during the 1920s;
  • USS Isabel (PY-10) -- Shipboard Activities, during the 1930s;
  • USS Isabel (PY-10) -- Other On Board Views taken during the 1930s; and
  • USS Isabel (PY-10) -- Miscellaneous Views.


    If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


    Return to Naval Historical Center home page.

    Page made 27 November 2004